Phelps: He Inhaled…and He’s Sorry
February 5, 2009 by Sandy Mitchell
Filed under Sports Rumors
He’s 23 years old and 23 year-olds make mistakes. However, when you’re earning millions of dollars to endorse kid-friendly products like Wheaties, you really ought to be very, very careful. So, when pictures surfaced of Olympic swimmer and eight-time Gold Medalist, Michael Phelps smoking a pipe generally used for smoking marijuana, he jumped to apologize. As well he should. Said Phelps to the “Baltimore Sun,”
“It’s obviously bad judgment and it’s something I’m not proud of at all. I will say that with the mistakes that I’ve made in my life, I’ve learned from them. Every one of them. And I’ve become a better person. That’s what I plan to do from here. It’s definitely not what I wanted, and it’s clearly not what my mom wanted.”
To date, Phelps has kept all of his endorcement deals, although the US Olympic Committee did express its disappointment in him.
It bears mentioning that Phelps did not break any Olympic anti-doping rules since he was on a long break from competition at the time of the incident. (Civil laws are another story.)
(photo © Newscom)
